Overview

• Municipal hospitals in Rio treated 20,775 motorcycle crash victims through last week, averaging about 80 cases a day and marking a 60% rise from the same period in 2024.
• To handle the surge, the city opened 25 new trauma beds at Barata Ribeiro and dedicated roughly 27 more at the Federal Hospital of Andaraí, with 40% of urgent orthopedic surgeries tied to traffic injuries and 82% of those involving motorcycles.
• City data show 20,201 traffic incidents from January to August 2025, already surpassing the full-year totals for 2021 and 2022 after steady increases from 2021 to 2024.
• Rio’s road-safety plan targets a 50% reduction in deaths and up to 30% fewer motorcycle hospitalizations by 2030, with 60 high-risk intersections to be redesigned by 2026, a 40% expansion of speed control by 2027, and safety campaigns in all municipal schools by 2028.
• Nationally, Brazil recorded nearly 35,000 traffic deaths in 2023 with pedestrians, cyclists, and especially motorcyclists most affected, and experts cite weak enforcement, car-centric planning, and a culture of leniency as key drivers of the crisis.